Relative system response elevator call assignments

Abstract

An elevator control system employes microprocessor-based group controller which communicates with the cars of the elevator system to determine conditions of the cars and responds to hall calls registered at a plurality of landings in the building serviced by the cars under control of the group controller, to provide assignments of calls to cars based on the summation for each car, with respect to each call, a weighted summation of a plurality of system response factors indicative of conditions of the car irrespective of the call to be assigned, and indicative of conditions of the car relative to the call to be assigned, including factors relating to preferring cars which are running, which require motion to provide service already assigned to the car, which do not have lobby calls, which are not positioned at the lobby, which are not full, even though the car may have a car call at the floor of the hall call under consideration, which do not have excessive car calls in them, and so forth. Exemplary apparatus and logic flow diagrams are disclosed to illustrate the specific manner of assigning calls to cars in accordance with the invention, and to illustrate the environment in which the invention may be practiced.

I claim: 
     
       1. An elevator system including a group of elevators for servicing a plurality of floor landings in a building, comprising: group controller means, including hall call means for registering calls for up and down service at each of said landings, for exchanging signals with each of said elevators, and for controlling the operation of said elevators in response to said hall call means and signals received from said elevators;   each of said elevators including a car, car motion means for providing and arresting the motion of said car, means registering car calls for service required by passengers therein, and a car controller means for providing signals indicative of conditions of said car, for controlling said car motion means to cause said car to move in a selected up or down direction and to stop in response to said signals indicative of conditions of said car and to signals received from said group controller means;   characterized by said group controller means comprising signal processing means responsive to said signals indicative of conditions of each of said cars for providing, for each car, with respect to each hall call registered, a signal representing the summation of relative system response factors, indicative of the relative degree to which the assigning of any hall call to said car is in accordance with a scheme of system response applicable to all of said cars, a first plurality of said relative system response factors registered being unrelated to the floor landing or direction of the hall call and a second plurality of said relative system response factors being indicative of service to be performed by each car in reaching the floor of the registered hall call, said relative system response factors being weighted with respect to one another to represent a reasonable increase in time expected for said group of elevators to answer a specific hall call in contrast with favoring another aspect of said scheme of system response identified with a respective one of said relative system response factors, and for assigning each registered hall call to the car provided with the lowest summation of relative system response factors with respect to such hall call for service to such hall call.   
     
     
       2. An elevator system according to claim 1 further characterized by said signal processing means comprising means for providing in said summation of system response factors a weighted amount indicative of the respective car having a lobby call, other than the registered hall call with respect to which said summation is being provided. 
     
     
       3. An elevator system according to claim 1 further characterized by said signal processing means comprising means for providing in said summation of system response factors a weighted amount indicative of the car motion means of the respective car being in a non-running condition. 
     
     
       4. An elevator system according to claim 1 further characterized by said signal processing means comprising means for providing in said summation of system response factors a weighted amount indicative of the respective car being assigned the main landing of the building. 
     
     
       5. An elevator system according to claim 1 further characterized by said signal processing means comprising means for providing in said summation of system response factors a weighted amount indicative of the respective car having no hall calls assigned to it and no car calls registered within it. 
     
     
       6. An elevator system according to claim 1 further characterized by said signal processing means comprising means for providing in said summation of system response factors a weighted amount indicative of the respective car being full but having a car call registered within it for the floor landing with respect to which said summation is being provided, for selectively providing in said summation of system response factors a maximum amount, many orders of magnitude greater than the weighted amount of other of said system response factors, in the event that said car is full and does not have a car call registered within it for the floor with respect to which said summation is being provided. 
     
     
       7. An elevator system according to claim 1 further characterized by said signal processing means comprising means for providing in said summation of system response factors a weighted amount indicative of the respective car call having more than a threshold number of car calls registered within it. 
     
     
       8. An elevator system according to claim 1 further characterized by said signal processing means comprising means for providing in said summation of system response factors a weighted amount indicative of the respective car having a car call registered within it for the same floor as that of the registered hall call, said weighted factor favoring the assignment of said hall call to such car. 
     
     
       9. An elevator system according to claim 1 further characterized by said signal processing means comprising means for providing in said summation system response factors which range from values on the order of the amount of time it takes for one of said elevators to pass a landing, without stopping, at its maximum speed to values on the order of twice the amount of time it takes for one of said elevators to decelerate to a stop at a landing, open its doors, provide passenger transfer time, close its doors and accelerate to full speed. 
     
     
       10. An elevator system according to any of claims 1 through 8 hereinbefore further characterized by said processing means comprising means for providing in said summation of system response factors a weighted amount approximately indicative of the time required for the respective car to complete a service stop at a landing whenever such summation is provided for a car which has started, but not completed, a service stop at a landing. 
     
     
       11. An elevator system according to any of claims 1 through 8 hereinbefore further characterized by said processing means comprising means for providing in said summation of system response factors a weighted amount approximately indicative of the time required for the respective car, with respect to any floor it will pass in performing service in advance of its ability to service the registered hall with respect to which said summation is being provided, to travel at maximum speed past any floor for which it has no hall call registered within it and has no hall call assigned to it, or to decelerate, stop, open its doors, allow passenger transfer time, close its doors and accelerate at any floor for which it has a car call registered within it or a hall call assigned to it.